Record participation announced for home country athletics federations

UKA and home country athletics federations launch a 10-year plan to make athletics the No.1 individual sport in the country

UK Athletics and the home country athletics federations have announced record athletics participation figures as they launch a 10-year plan to make athletics the No.1 individual sport in the country.

The national governing body says the number of people committing to athletics as members of clubs has increased dramatically in recent years, with a 49% UK total growth in membership of athletics clubs between 2008 and 2015.

At a home country level this is illustrated by a rise of 100% in Wales, with the number of members of athletics clubs rising from 5000 to 10,000 between 2008 and 2015, plus a rise of 96% in Northern Ireland, with the number of members of athletics clubs rising from 2800 to 5500 during the same time frame.

In addition, there has been a rise of 45% in England, where the number of members of athletics clubs rose from 100,000 to 145,000 between 2008 and 2015, together with a rise of 45% in Scotland, where the number of members of athletics clubs rose from 7950 to 11,520 between those years.

With the IAAF World Championships and World Para-Athletics Championships coming to the UK in 2017, the home country federations believe the interest in athletics will continue to rise.

“I’m delighted to see these record growth figures delivered by the home countries over the last eight years,” said UKA chief executive Niels de Vos.

“It shows that athletics, the centre piece of London 2012, led to a clear participation upsurge. With London 2017, Birmingham 2018 World Indoors and Glasgow 2019 European Indoors, the opportunity is there for UK Athletics and the home country athletics federations to increase these participation figures still higher.

“It is this shared ambition which is outlined in our joint work: ‘An Athletic Nation strategy’.”

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